Today’s environment demands that companies in Harlingen, Texas have reliable Internet service in order to run their company. Fortune 500 companies to small companies and everything in between, depend on reliable and fast access to The web.

In the coming months and years, we’ll become increasingly dependent on our access to the internet.

The Internet is ubiquitous. From email to data sharing, archiving to commerce and VOIP to video chat, the net is everywhere. What solution bet fits your needs? Is a cable modem enough? It could be that you need Metro Ethernet. Gigabit Internet? A 5 Meg Internet circuit, 10 Meg access to The net, a 50 Meg circuit, or a 100 Meg Internet access point: what is right for your organization in Harlingen?

How to Define your Company Need for Internet Access

The needs of your particular organization must be determined before you can select an appropriate service. Are surfing the web and sending email the only uses of the net? Is connecting with cloud servers and sharing real time data the main use of the net? There may be remote locations that rely on you and you are hosting the data in Harlingen, Texas.

What if there is an outage and your high-speed Internet is interrupted? Will your company suffer from the lull? Is the absence of uptime detrimental? Prior to making any purchases, you must determine the answers to these questions.

Appraising Various High-Speed Internet Solutions in Harlingen, Texas

Plainly stated, companies require high-speed access to The net. Choosing the correct broadband internet for your business requires a cost benefit analysis. Don’t be distracted by terminology. While you may hear providers throw out words and phrases like:

High-speed Internet access

Corporate Internet

Broadband cable modem services

Metro Ethernet

Gigabit Internet

MPLS network

Services related to point-to-point circuits

5-megabyte access circuits

10 Meg Internet access circuits

We have fifty-megabyte Internet access circuits

100 Meg Internet access circuits

Sip trunking experts

Direct or dedicated Internet access

… plus others

… be sure not to forget what capability and technical solutions meet your business’s specific needs.

Business access to The net for Website Surfing

Companies in Harlingen need access to the internet for their employees. Some companies may need it only for a few people and others may need it for the entire workforce. Third party applications, business research or development and e-commerce are just a few of the ways the web may be needed.

Perhaps the size of your work force may determine the solution that best fits your needs. If you have a smaller workforce, you may do fine with a smaller Internet circuit. For example, if you only employ a handful of people, a 5 or 10 Meg circuit may meet your needs. If your business has nearly 50 people, however, and they all need to use the web at the same time, you may find that more is better.

High-speed Internet may become less important if the majority of your employees primarily use an intranet system with limited graphics and video. If your business functions demand the downloading of documents and images or videos on a regular basis, speed becomes a must more important issue.

Are you regularly performing backups? It is recommended that you do remote backups from every desk. If you are, you will need to support simultaneous connections out to the web to synchronize the backup data to collect.

Google drive and DropBox are two popular sharing services. Are you using one of these or some other service that allows you to share files? As a file is saved, it is pushed to the cloud and then synced back to other people’s computers. The right amount of capacity or bandwidth is necessary to support this function in conjunction with every other service you have.

Company high-speed access to The net may interest you. Depending on your location, you may have options such as gigabit Internet or Metro Ethernet. They are almost always found in “lit buildings” in Harlingen, Texas that are already wired by a carrier. Choosing to add high-speed Internet to your office is a tough decision but it can be less expensive and easier than you think.

The introduction of Metro Ethernet into a new building can be quite costly. However, bringing that connection into office space within that building is usually less so. Did you know that obtaining high-speed Internet access with Metro Ethernet or gigabit Internet can often take 30 days or less? Of course, this depends upon availability.

Web Applications: They Require High-Speed Internet Access

Does your organization host its own servers to run information feeds, websites or application program interfaces (APIs) with companies or offices located outside of your four walls? Maybe your organization requires that dozens of satellite offices have access to a hosted application at your company main headquarters. Perhaps you are in retail and host the point of sale (POS) system for thousands of stores? Does your legal practice host all of the data for 3, 4 or 5 offices in different locations?

If your company hosts its programs and information at a central location, people outside of that location need to have access in order to conduct company. If your Internet connection goes down, those people are unable to work. Make sure that when you choose your intranet solution it is reliable enough to support your need for multiple and simultaneous connections for many different places.

For one office or a small company with just one or two people surfing the web, a less expensive 10 Meg circuit or a cable modem may meet your needs. For the headquarters, high-speed access to The net including Metro Ethernet, gigabit Ethernet or other high-speed dedicated circuits is advisable. While all offer high speeds, they also need to be capable of supporting multiple diverse connections. A cable modem would likely not provide the necessary support.

Shared Cable Circuits V. Dedicated Internet Bandwidth in Harlingen

In some situations, there is a high price to pay for bringing in an inexpensive circuit or cable modem. There may be a lower monthly rate, but bandwidth is usually shared with many tenants. During peak use hours, you may not be able to reach proper speeds. Cable operators differ but many have prescribed limits on the bandwidth amount that they can deliver within a set community. Whatever that amount of bandwidth is, it branches into all buildings in the community and to all tenants in those buildings. Will you achieve 30-meg speed during the working day? Is this a problem for you if you expect 30 and get 6?

Other carriers do offer dedicated and guaranteed bandwidth. With these, bandwidth belongs to you and your company only; no sharing. Regardless of other tenants in your building or neighboring buildings, you should receive the full capacity of your circuit.

Five Meg, ten Meg, fifty Meg and 100 Meg circuits of guaranteed bandwidth are available with Metro Ethernet. You can reach gigabit speeds with gigabit Internet providers.

Carriers in these situations deliver enough to cover everyone’s needs. The providers divide their circuit to various tenants while guaranteeing that everyone gets their contracted speed.

Despite outstanding Internet bandwidth products offered by carriers in Harlingen, Texas, circuits do go down. The question then becomes, “how do I minimize my chance of an outage? ”

Redundant circuits may be the answer for you.

Redundancy basically comes in two forms.

With the first type of redundancy, you receive multiple circuits from the same carrier. If there is a problem with a line or a port in your router, circuit redundancy can offer some protection. If your carrier experiences a regional outage or you have a line broken outside of your building, you may lose the use of all of your circuits. While there is some protection, there is also some risk.

Circuit redundancy can also be achieved in the following way: Import circuits using two different and distinct providers. By using IP address allocations and certain routers, you can bind your connections. By doing this, it appears and behaves as a single circuit. But, you know that they are actually separate and redundant. While circuit redundancy in general is a good idea, diversity redundancy by using different providers, offers far better protection. When one carrier has a problem like an outage or some other failure, you have another one that works.

You should look for redundant circuits from providers in Harlingen that do not have the same physical geographic pathways, in order to get the most redundancy. This means that you should try to have the circuits come into you building from different sides. The circuits would attached to the proper outside source whether a subterranean conduit or a telephone pole. They would be set up in different directions and would lead to different data centers or main office spaces. In this way you have redundancy in different physical directions. If there is an event that causes a regional circuit problem, you have an alternative that is unaffected.

What Cost Awaits if you do Not Have Enough High-Speed Internet access Protection for Your Organization?

The cost to your company if you do not have reliable access to The net will be far greater than you may realize. Please think about the following scenarios:

The phone service in your office relies on Voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP)

If your organization utilizes a cable modem, consider whether your carrier is providing circuits for multiple other tenants within the building. During the course of a regular work day, any or all of these other businesses might be performing massive file downloads. Tenants might be taking a large volume of calls or be regularly streaming video. As they use more bandwidth, there is less for available to meet your requirements. What happens to your phone calls? What about the quality of your calls? Will you lose calls? Will your voice be inaudible? Will you have difficulty hearing the other end?

Your office or company is the main location for data and functions in that role for multiple locations

Whether you are a law firm doing file sharing, an accounting practice sharing databases or a retailer operating a distributed point-of-sale system, your office is the hub for your enterprise. Your primary Internet connection is responsible for granting access to data to all of your sites. This is true whether you have 3 places or 2000 sites. How will you be affected if your circuit goes down? Would it cause mere annoyance or utter disaster? Can your satellite offices perform any work at all? Take new orders? Service existing ones? Share information? Do you know what your company needs? Be sure to fully understand your requirements. It will help you choose the correct solution. Maybe you are a corporation that designs and sells software and you run a hosted solution that is used by hundreds and hundreds of customers. You may operate a service like this: other systems speak with yours via an API to figure out freight rates, stock prices, to compile weather data or receive any other information that you provide. What if you have server problems and they are unable to connect to you? Will your customers remain loyal to you if they have to withstand multiple outages?

The telephone system at your call center relies on VoIP

Your business is entirely Internet based. What if your representatives can make no outgoing telephone calls because your circuits go down? In addition, they will be unable to answer incoming calls. You are essentially out of company. For competent call centers that already use and understand the problems that can arise, is redundancy enough? Make sure your providers are as reliable as possible. Clear and reliable calls are essential. Does your carrier service consistently provide this?

Considering the Best Harlingen High-Speed Organization Access Circuits for Your Company

It should be clear by now that you have many different options to select from. Your choices will largely depend on your budget, in addition to the other requirements of your company. As a high-level summary:

Internet Access for Smaller Businesses

If your company is small, with one location or office, you are likely not concerned about redundancy. For you, a single 5, 10 or 50 megabyte access to The Internet circuit may suffice. Metro Ethernet service or gigabit service may also be a reasonably priced option if you are in a lit building. Prices change based on your location and the availability of circuits. Please speak with our engineers about what options best suit your needs.

Single Location Mid-Sized Company and Internet Access

If you have a midsized organization in Harlingen, you will need higher-speed access to The net. Gigabit Internet, Metro Ethernet and other higher speed Internet circuits are options to consider. Multiple circuits utilizing multiple providers would, ideally, provide you with maximum redundancy. This may be attainable without doubling your costs. For example, one 100-megabyte circuit may cost more than two smaller 50-megabyte circuits. Remember, costs vary. So does availability. Learn your options by speaking with one of our knowledgeable experts. We can help you determine what is available in your specific location.

Midsized Businesses with Multiple Locations: Internet Access

The greatest risk of failure belongs to companies that have multiple places of business or offices. Redundancy is crucial. Varied providers are optimal. You can decrease risk during downtime by having redundant equipment as well. Look at all of your options: Ethernet access services, gigabit Internet providers, Metro Ethernet providers and other high-speed circuit providers. Your company can benefit from finding the right mix of services and carriers.

For businesses that fit this description, it is essential to have gigabit Internet circuits, point-to-point high-speed Internet circuits and Metro Ethernet Internet circuits. You must have redundant circuits for multiple providers as well as redundant hardware in your office to ensure your uptime. Spikes or sudden increase in usage can result in Internet slowdowns or disruptions in service. You can decrease the risk of these events by having sufficient bandwidth. It is crucial that not only your circuits have the ability to support a vast number of multiple and simultaneous connects, but your hardware must have the ability to support them as well.

You Can Get a Free Internet Need and Demand Analysis

There is great risk of failing circuits or insufficient bandwidth. Your ideal single circuit or multiple circuits should stay within your budget while still meeting your demands. There is tremendous pressure on you to choose the best combination of circuits and hardware.

Our engineers will take the pressure off and develop a free action plan for you by analyzing your needs. We will look at your current usage, demand levels and scope out a design to give you the resources you need while keeping your business up and running at a reasonable cost.

Please complete the contact form by clicking here. You may also call our office to set up an appointment for your assessment. Assessments are completed in as little as 48 hours.